


Basic Instincts

by GhostCrumpet



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Classy ABO, Darcy and Clint is friends with benefits, F/M, M/M, Multi, Nesting, or omegas with benefits, really they're just buddies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2018-12-19 00:47:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11886384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostCrumpet/pseuds/GhostCrumpet
Summary: Darcy Lewis's never been a hormone-driven Omega. At least not until she stumbled across two super-serumed soldiers duking it out in the Stark Tower gymspace.And now? Well... now... she damn well wishes she'd paid more attention in Omega Health Class.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChrissiHR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrissiHR/gifts).



> Cause Chrissi wanted some ABO :)

The urge hit her when she woke up the next morning.

‘Nesting instincts’. She’d laughed at it with her friends, poring over magazine articles when she was in highschool titled things like  _ Caught Nest-Handed: Valedictorian Loses Scholarship After Shoplifting Pillows For Her First Nest _ and  _ Top Five Nest Accessories _ ,  _ Get Stylish AND Cozy! Nesting Couture Runway Looks Winter ‘98 _ , and  _ All Nests Are Perfect: Tailoring Your Nest To Your Individual Needs _ . And sure, one by one, all of her friends started getting their nesting instincts, and would den up for days in their bedroom closets. Lucky girls were the ones who got loft beds, because the underneath area was perfect for building a cozy little nesting spot. Nevermind that their full heats wouldn’t hit them until they were in their early twenties, Omegas would start nesting earlier on in their mid-teens.

Except that had never happened to Darcy. Her mom had even taken her to the doctor, where she’d been given a pamphlet with drippy-looking font spelling out  _ FAILURE TO NEST _ on the front, and a curled up, emaciated-looking Omega underneath it with big bags under her eyes. She could still remember the long-term impacts of  _ failing to nest _ according to the pamphlet, a scary freaking list that had her crying in the car on the way home: decreased fertility, bone-density loss, lowered mental function and cognition, higher risk of ovarian cancer…

Of course, she’d gotten home, and her dad had taken one look at the pamphlet, cursed the doctor out on his voicemail, and chucked the paper in the fire. He took her out to do yoga instead, and told her  _ don’t sweat it, sweetpea, everyone develops differently _ .

Still. Being 26 and not having ever nested kinda weighed on her, and she’d been eyeing the biological clock with trepidation. So when she and Jane had been offered a residency at Stark Tower, including full medical (with in-house medical team), Darcy had gone right to the clinic the second day there. A few blood work-ups later, and still without answers, she’d dejectedly gone down to the gym on the 34th floor for a little frustration-busting workout.

That’s where everything had gone straight downhill (or uphill, depending on your view-point, really). It would’ve been fine, really, if the gym had, you know, been empty, at 11AM on a Wednesday morning, but nah.  _ Nahhhh _ . It had to be full (and overwhelmingly scented) of two super-soldiers, challenging each other to a kill-off.

Well, that’s what it looked like anyway. Her tennis shoes skidded on the rubber flooring as she came to a sharp halt, as un-bonded, healthy,  _ available _ , Alpha-scent rolled over her and her heart stuttered in her chest.

Steve and Bucky, not that she’d met them yet officially, but she knew them on-sight (not that she’d had a collage in her locker for them,  _ nahhhhhhhhhmaybeok _ , but also they’d been pretty high-profile for the last five years of her existence on the news), were sparring, bare-foot and bare-chested, hand-to-hand, no weapons. It did her head in.

She must’ve made an inhuman noise, because first Steve turned, and Bucky, a second later, after clocking Steve across the jaw with a good left-hook that  _ holyfuck _ must’ve hurt. Steve stumbled to the side, but his gaze never wavered from where it was stuck to Darcy.

Bucky was equally as focused, and Darcy felt pinned by four intense blue eyes. Then Bucky’s mouth opened just  _ so _ , and his tongue slipped out over his lower lip, and she snapped out of it.

_ Huuuuuuugod _ , she thought to herself, as she cleared her throat, and decided that the best course for the next five seconds of her life was to put her hair up in a ponytail, ignore the two sweaty Alpha dudebros staring at her like she was naked, and hop on the treadmill.

So she did that, feeling the pressure of twin gazes burning the back of her the entire way there.

There was a soft muttering noise behind her after she got onto the treadmill, and the fight-noises resumed. She closed her eyes, trying to summon patience, because her body felt like it was on fire, her skin itching all over. She needed to get control of it, whatever it was, but she kinda figured that  _ this _ was part of what all those articles had talked about, as a warning-sign of pre-nesting she’d heard about in Reproduction and Omega Class during Grade 8.

_ You may find yourself preternaturally attracted to Alphas in your neighborhood or your class, but it’s important you don’t act on those feelings unless you speak with your parents about it first… _

No way in hell was she calling her mom and dad to let them know that her hormones had woken up, and woken up something fierce.  _ Keep your game face on, Darcy Lewis, _ she urged herself, staring at the screen of her treadmill as it flashed up with a video of a mountain path. She breathed through her mouth, kept her whimpering to a minimum, and ran for it.

She did her best to block out the noises behind her, and eventually it went quiet, and the scent faded somewhat. She snuck a look over her shoulder.

An empty gym greeted her, and she breathed out a sigh of relief, sagging over the side-bars on the treadmill. She’d kept up the facade like she wasn’t incredibly turned on while the two men had been duking it out behind her, but now that she was on her own?

She hopped off the machine, grabbed a towel, and made a straight bee-line for her apartment where she gave her new vibe a workout that matched the one she’d just done.

Then she’d slept.

And the next morning when she woke up? That’s when the urge hit her.

 

Grumpy didn’t even begin to cover it. Steve’d been a fuckin’ foul mood since they’d left the gym, throwing longing glances over his shoulder back at the door to the exercise room, acting like he was gonna go charging right back in and ask the pretty Omega with the rockin’ body out.

“You’re too chicken shit, so don’t even think about it,” Bucky said as they took the elevator up to their floor. Steve growled at him.

“What did you say?”

“I said you’re too chicken shit. You’ll barge in there, get five feet from her, smell her, and freeze up. I remember what you were like around Carter, both of the Carters. The right Omega makes you crazy, and you can’t handle yourself,” Bucky said, knowing he was asking for punch, but he relaxed back against the wall of the elevator as Steve hit the emergency stop button.

He squared up to Bucky, that one extra inch he had over his best friend put to good use, and glowered down at him.

“You wanna repeat that?” he asked, voice dangerously soft. Bucky chuckled and reached up, patting Steve on the cheek, knowing he was pushing the other man, but how long had it been since Steve’d gotten laid? He hadn’t managed to score with Sharon, because that shit had gotten awkward fast, and the girl was the most Alpha-like Omega either of them had ever met. The three of them, as some sort of Alpha-Omega-Alpha triad? It woulda been hell. Sharon’d seen that writing on the wall, and had hightailed it out so fast, leaving Steve feeling frustrated, guilty, and angry, and then more guilty for all three of those emotions too. He’d withdrawn from any Omega that would’ve turned his head, and so Bucky wasn’t going to give up on the first pretty thing that probably wasn’t an idiot (well, she was working with Foster, so that remained to be seen… as far as Bucky was concerned, working with scientists was a clear indicator for insanity- Bucky had read all up on Darcy Lewis’s file before she set foot in the tower, as part of the pre-clearance protocols for her being allowed to move in along with Dr. Foster.)

Steve needed a push. Bucky was gonna shove him.

“I think you, with your forget-me-not memory, don’t need me to say it again. You can’t have her, and you’re gonna stay away,” Bucky said. He saw Steve’s pupils dilate, and he grinned internally. The other man had always been a scrapper and growing a good foot taller and putting on almost two hundred more pounds hadn’t diminished the fite-me in Steve Rogers. Add that onto the extra serum running through every cell in his body… and that just amplified what a damn irrational hot-head Rogers could be. Nevermind that if he had a chance to calm down, he’d feel ashamed of himself for being such a damn assuming dick, but Bucky wasn’t going to let the chance to send his best friend down the path to happiness even if it meant losing a tooth. Or three.

“So you can have her?” Steve asked, brow furrowing. Bucky had to resist a laugh, but reached out to hit the stop button to get them moving again.

“Like I’d have any girl without you,” he said, and Steve huffed out a breath, calming down  _ slightly _ .

“She’s…”

“Out of our league,” Bucky finished Steve’s sentence for him. “So stop thinking about her.”

Steve grunted, and Bucky figured the other man was now doing the exact opposite. Congratulating himself on setting up a pretty tidy reverse-psychology trap on his best friend, he prepared to relax for the rest of the evening and do a little not-thinking about Darcy Lewis himself.

 

Her mouth was a furnace. She needed water. She got up out of bed, feeling like the world was watching her, and was overwhelmed with the urge to hide. Darcy huffed out a breath, and her spacious apartment suddenly felt way too big. The windows? She was vulnerable. She needed… she needed…

She skidded by her laundry basket and then halted in her tracks. Her sweatshirt from the day before was still there, slung on top. It smelt like her, and also, also… she grabbed it and wrapped her arms around the soft, dark blue fabric. If she squeezed it just right, the residual scent of the two Alphas filled her nose.

The tight, bound feeling in her chest unwrapped for a moment and she sighed. This was what she needed. Her eyes flicked open. She had to… get more of it.

“FRIDAY?” she called softly.

“ _ Yes Miss Lewis _ ?” the answer was instant, and equally quiet, matching Darcy’s tone and energy.

“What floor do Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes live on?” Maybe if she just went up to their floor… before she could convince herself it was a bad idea, she was in the elevator on her way up. As soon as she shuffled out into the hallway, the air pressed in on her from all sides. The hall was nice. The hall had no windows, just long, white-lacquered walls that were broken by two doors. She could… here… the scent, it was good, it was all very, very good. She found herself walking past the first door, which scented strongly of the two Alphas who inhabited the floor, and then to the second door that was at the end of the hall. It was a storage closet, she knew, cause she’d stuck her head into the one on her floor out of pure curiosity. Like hers, this one was empty, and she slipped inside of it, leaving the door open a crack.

_ Yeah _ , she thought, looking around the small room.  _ This’ll be perfect. _

 

It’d taken a forty-five minute run, and two flat-out-to-the-death sparring sessions before Steve’d finally grumbled and been calm enough to return to the apartment. Bucky’s little plan on working Steve up had been a little  _ too _ effective. The guy had barely slept the night before, paced around a bunch, and was so twitchy that he’d nearly clotheslined Clint when the other man had walked around a corner too abruptly at breakfast.

Bucky might have felt a tiny bit bad, buuuuut there was also something pretty hot in getting Steve’s blood up. He was kinda hoping, if he pushed the right buttons, that Steve’d pin him up against their apartment wall later.

Too bad he hadn’t counted on five-foot-two of Omega nonsense throwing a wrench in the works. As soon as they emerged from the elevator, Steve stopped short, and Bucky ran into his back. That’s when the scent hit him.

Darcy Lewis was on their floor.  _ Why _ , he had no idea, but  _ where _ was pretty obvious: the storage closet down at the end meant for cleaning supplies or Christmas decorations (or whatever), had the door open, and there was a soft, quiet humming sound emanating from it, along with the tinny-sound of cell-phone speaker music.

“Hello?” Bucky called out, pushing past Steve. He crossed the hall in a few short steps, and peeked into the closet.

“Uh,” Darcy Lewis said, staring up at him from the middle of what looked to be the beginnings of a very comfortable, very cluttered nest. She shrank down immediately, guilt on her features. “Shit.. I… oh crap, uh,” she looked around as she spoke, wincing. “Hi?”

“Hey,” Steve breathed the word, coming up right behind Bucky and nudging in over his shoulder.

Bucky opened his mouth, and tried not to inhale the sweet scent of the pretty Omega currently taking up residence in their storage closet. Before he could speak to introduce himself, Darcy colored pink in the cheeks and staggered to her feet, dragging up a quilted blanket with her.

“I uh… I’m Darcy Lewis, and um… nice to meet you,” she said, her gaze flicking between them. She winced. “I’m sorry… I just… I had this like, crazy, crazy need to…”

“Nest,” Steve finished for her gently, and all the pent-up energy that had been plaguing the other Alpha seemed to settle, as suddenly he was presented with a purpose: help the Omega. “That’s fine, Miss Lewis. If you need to nest, it’s not like we were using this closet anyway. Right?” He nudged Bucky with his shoulder.

“Right,” Bucky agreed, nodding too quickly and cursing himself. How come Steve was all smooth all of the sudden, and Bucky felt like he was ten feet tall and made out of pipe cleaners? “Right,” he cleared his throat, “you can nest here if you need.”

“No one’s gonna bug you up on our floor and… well, you just let us know if you need anything, alright?” Steve offered, putting a hand on the back of Bucky’s neck. Steve’s fingers tightened, and Bucky sensed that the other man was about to haul them both out of there to give Darcy her space.

“Oh.. uh, really? Wow. Thanks. I… yeah, I mean, I dunno how long I’m gonna…”

“It’s fine, Darcy,” Bucky said, going for as gentle and kind in his voice as he could while one of Steve’s fingers was pinching a nerve in his neck. “You just tell FRIDAY if you need anything, and we’ll make sure you get it.”

 

Cheese and crackers, she was fucking embarrassed.  _ Oh hey, super heroes. Excuse me while I just make a fucking mating nest outside of your apartment, oh, you don’t mind? Hey, give me your shirts, because what would really make life awesome right now is if my whole nest smelt like you. _ She groaned internally as Steve and Bucky smiled at her, and made her feel welcome, and overwhelmed her with their lack of ability to pick the right sized-shirts, because the cotton was clinging to their bodies in way that had to be illegal.

“Um… well… thanks?” she said sheepishly, and then sank down into her piles of comforters and quilts. Two sets of eyes tracked her downward motion, and she couldn’t help the little dip of her chin, and the tilt of her head that screamed submissive Omega (and god when had she  _ ever _ behaved like that in the history of  _ ever _ ?!), that made both men stiffen.

“Alright,” Steve said, breathing out heavily. “We’ll just be… in our apartment.” He backed out first, giving Bucky space, and when Bucky didn’t move, he wrapped an arm around Bucky’s wrist, and yanked him away from the door.

Darcy breathed out quietly as they disappeared from view, their footsteps receding on the carpet. The sound of their door clicking open and shut gave her relief, but also was followed by an immense feeling of loneliness.

Suddenly, the nest wasn’t enough, and the sense of completion she’d felt by getting in everything soft and fluffy into the small, 5x5 space, was gone. She pulled the door almost closed, and wrapped herself up in a quilt, reaching for the sweatshirt that barely had the scent of the two men on it by that point. She balled it up under her chin and snuggled down, shivering and trying to remember from those YM articles how long the whole nesting-binge was going to last.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is beside himself, Darcy is embarrassed, and someone new shows up at the nest...

She was so close.

Steve pressed up against the wall of the bathroom in their guest suite, practically feeling her presence on the other side of it. The party wall was filled with cement and firestopping, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t  _ feel _ her.

He closed his eyes and tried to not hate himself for getting stupid over an Omega he’d just met.  _ But she’s gorgeous _ , he thought, and groaned under his breath. And since when was Steve Rogers a sucker for a pretty face? He barely knew the girl.  _ But you could get to know her. She’s right there. Fifteen inches of cement and drywall is all that’s separating you,  _ his brain traitorously informed him. He knew, abstractly, that going through the wall was probably not the best idea, and that the door was close enough to perform as a better route.

The fact he wanted to go right through the wall was an indicator that he had a huge problem.  What the hell was he even thinking? Darcy was a young unbonded Omega, and definitely off limits to him. He didn’t know her and she did not know him. It’s not like he was in the position of relationship with anyone, and anyway it would be highly inappropriate given his position as leader of the Avengers.

Still, he could not help himself from wanting her. It wasn’t just that she was beautiful, because she certainly was that, but more that he saw something in her that called out to him. There was something about Darcy Lewis that begged him to get to know her, and to make her his. The intensity of his feelings was half the reason he was so hesitant in approaching her. No one, not even Peggy, had ever made him feel this way before. There was something very frightening about being out of control of your own feelings, and Steve did not like feeling out of control in the least. It reminded him of being sickly and small, not knowing if he would survive the next winter.

He was about to heave himself off the floor and go to bed, to try and find some peace and sleep, but FRIDAY interrupted him.

“Captain Rogers,” the AI started, her tone apologetic. “Ms. Romanoff has requested a meeting with you, as soon as possible.”

Steve blinked at that.

“And she couldn’t have texted me?” he asked, getting to his feet. “Is she coming here?”

There was a pause for a few moments, and then FRIDAY responded.

“I have been asked to relay a message to you: If I’d have texted you, you’d have ignored me, Rogers, and pretended it’s because you don’t know how to check your texts,” FRIDAY’s voice was amused and Steve sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Well, Natasha wasn’t exactly  _ wrong. _

“Alright, fine. Where?”

“Common room, if you would please, Captain Rogers.” FRIDAY went quiet after that. He cursed and got to his feet. Going to the common room meant walking through the hall, which meant being even closer to Darcy. His emotions were going haywire with the drive to check on her. The hormones an Omega gave off when they nested were powerful- causing a chain reaction in any nearby unbonded Alphas, (and in the rare-occasion, a bonded Alpha with whom the Omega had a strong, platonic relationship). Alphas would crawl over broken glass to make sure the Omega had everything she needed in order to nest properly, because a successful nesting meant a likely heat, and then a likely breeding. He rubbed his hand over his face. He was  _ not _ thinking of breeding. He was  _ not. _ He barely even knew her. A few seconds in her company did not constitute a relationship, and Steve was new-school when it came to the Omegas he mated with: no love at first sight, no responding to hormones first and figuring out if they were compatible later like people used to do. He’d nearly made that mistake with Sharon Carter, letting her scent get the better of him when he should have damn well stayed away.

He was not going to make that same mistake with Darcy Lewis.

So of course, minutes later, he found himself standing outside the door to the storage closet, listening to her toss and turn restlessly in her nest. He could feel the waves of discomfort coming off of her, a slight acid hint in her scent that made him ache to  _ fix it _ but she didn’t even know he was hovering right outside…

He huffed a breath louder than he’d intended, and Darcy made a startled noise inside the closet.

“Captain Rogers?” she asked, and he twitched.

“Steve’s fine,” he said, and then cleared his throat.

“What’re you…”

“Is everything okay?” he asked, not wanting to explain himself, because hell, he couldn’t explain it, other than to chalk it up to hormones.  _ Hormones, _ as if he were some young Alpha, new-come into his perceptions and able to smell Omegas for the first time.

“I… I… I’m fine…” she lied, and then he heard her rustling around some more, trying to get comfortable.

He couldn’t help it. He started to rumble, in his chest, a soothing noise, meant to calm a distressed Omega. She wasn’t telling him what she needed, and he really had no idea, because he didn’t know her, what her personal preferences for nesting might be, so he knelt down outside the door, and just purred.

There was a pause, silence in the hallway other than the soft, steady rumbling emanating from his body, and then he saw the door open further a crack. Darcy peeked out at him, her face flushed, her lips parted.

“Steve…” she swallowed visibly, and his eyes tracked the hollow of her throat as it tightened. The edges of her eyes grew wet, and she put her hands over her face. “This is so goddamn embarrassing. I am so sorry! I’m like a mole person.”

Her comment startled a laugh out of him.

“A mole person?”

“Ugh, I’m just… I’m just hiding out here, in your closet, like… seriously, I am so sorry,” she said, fumbling at the blankets she’d gathered. “And it doesn’t even feel right.” Darcy looked around the small nest she’d made for herself.

“Yeah, I kinda… I gathered that,” Steve said, and then chuckled. “Look, you’re not a mole person, and it’s okay. Really, we don’t mind. But if it’s not right…. What can I get you?”

Darcy sat there, and then pushed her hair out of her face. Her curls were messy, sticking up at odd angles, but Steve thought she looked perfect. She looked  _ nested _ , and the sight of her was kicking his hormones into overdrive. The urge to crawl in there with her, and curl up around her, was hitting him strong. It just made him purr even louder, and his cheeks flushed. Darcy didn’t seem to notice, however, because her eyes shuttered and she hunkered down in her pile of blankets with a sigh.

“That’s nice,” she said softly, and while what they were doing wasn’t  _ nesting _ per se, it was close enough to it to make Steve feel useful. If he had to put a word to it, he was hovering. He could deal with just hovering.

The only thing that was bothering him was the lack of mattress on the floor. Sure, back in the old days, an Omega would make do with whatever they could get in terms of nesting materials. He’d seen quite a few nests made out of a foot of straw, especially when he was wading through Europe with the Howlies, but this was the 2000’s, and there was no reason for Darcy to have nothing but a few thin blankets between her and the floor. He mentally made a note to have something sent up. It would ruffle her, disturbing her nesting a bit, but it would be worth it for her increased comfort… if… if she ended up staying for a few days, or more.

Really, his preference would be for her to come into the suite he shared with Bucky, since it was equipped with an actual  _ nesting room _ , fortified by 20” thick cement walls, and located right in the middle of the apartment, and it had it’s own bathroom, but that sort of thing made it seem like he was implying that she was  _ their _ Omega, and he had absolutely no right to do so. But…

“Hey,” he said, and Darcy shifted, wriggling around until she could look at him without lifting her head. He melted a bit at the sight of her curls, tumbling across the quilts and pillows, and her blue eyes staring up at him in the sweetest, most innocent of manners. His Alpha hormones surged for a moment, and he had to clamp down hard on the need to crawl over top of her and wrap himself around her as tight as he could.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Uh, if you need… I can, well, I can add you to the permissions for our suite, so you can use the bathroom without having to go down to your apartment,” he said, hoping that wasn’t too forward. He had little to no experience in handling Omegas in this sort of situation, especially with social mores being very different from when he was first learning his way around an Omega.

A flood of colour rose in Darcy’s cheeks, and her eyes darkened at his suggestion. He wondered for a moment if he overstepped, but he was fairly certain, as a smile played across her lips, that she was just fine with the idea.

“That’s sweet of you to offer,” she said, and then shimmied a little in her quilts, before shutting her eyes. “I’m gonna nap now.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” he said hastily, getting to his knees and backing up from the closet. He pushed the door almost closed, and took a deep, forifying breath.

He could handle the thought of Darcy walking through his house a few times a day.

_ Probably. _

 

Darcy held her breath until Steve had left the hallway, and then she rolled around on her quilts for a few moments, reveling in the thick scent he’d left behind. She wanted to wrap herself in it, the comforting feeling that tagged along with Steve’s presence making her feel more relaxed than even a hour-long massage. She finally got what all those stupid magazine articles had said about nesting, and a sense of rightness filled her at being so close to two strong Alphas. Her eyes drooped shut and she started to settle, drifting nicely, a warm-soft buzzy feeling taking her.

There was a small scratching sound that made her eyes pop open.

The noise came again, and then above her, high on the wall of the closet, the hvac vent swung open. She sat up, startled, and then stared when Clint’s disheveled, blond, Beta head popped out of it.

“Uh,” he said, his expression a little glassy-eyed. “Shit.”

“Clint?!” She goggled at him, noticing his cheeks turning a bright pink. “What’re you-”

“It smelt good,” he whined, looking guilty, then seemed to say, internally at least,  _ fuck it _ , and he tumbled out of the vent landing next to her with a soft thud. She yipped and rolled out of the way, glaring at him and feeling ruffled.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, and then watched, astonished, as he melted into the blankets, going from the usually stern and gruff task master who taught her self defence, to completely relaxed, basking in the nest she’d made.

“S’good,” he warbled, sounding drunk, before looking at her, guilt suffusing his features. “S’been so long since I’ve…” he paused.

That’s when it hit her- the subtle scent of  _ Omega _ rolling off of him.  _ What in the hell…? _ But he couldn’t be… male Omegas were rare, less than one per several million people, and he’d always smelled, and presented, like a Beta to her in the past… but, her sense of smell wasn’t lying to her.

“You’re not a Beta,” she said the words incredulously, and he grinned for a moment, dopey as all heck, and then blushed more.

“Yeah uh, no… about that…” he scratched the back of his neck and then shrugged one shoulder. “Wouldja believe I buy a totally illegal blackmarket phermone blocker?”

She cleared her throat, and then huffed out a breath.

“Anyone else? No. You? You practically scream ‘ATF raid target’, so yeah, yeah… I guess… but why…” she let her words die when she realized why. Of course an Omega male would want to hide his designation, especially when he was fighting to save the world on a regular basis, and doing undercover work when he wasn’t being a superhero. It made sense.

It also explained why he was burrowing down into her blankets like he hadn’t nested in years. Because he probably hadn’t, even when the urge to do so was killing him. She felt guilty for being resentful at his crash-landing (literally) into her nest.

“You don’t… mind, do you?” he asked, his voice uncharacteristically small. She melted, and shook her head.

“No, no, not at all,” she said, and then found herself surrounded by Clint’s form as he snuggled up against her with a happy sigh.

“Fuck yes,” he said, his eyes closing as he relaxed. “‘Aint nested since… hell, since I was in my teens, I swear to god. And holy hell, do the wonder-twins smell amazing.” He had a dopey smile on his face, and she cuddled up to him, putting her head on his shoulder with a sigh.

“I know, seriously, I’m dying of embarrassment, but I can’t be fucked to care, really,” she said into the collar of his shirt. Clint chuckled, and then rolled over, wrapping an arm around her tight.

“Mmph. Don’t sweat it, kid. I bet you like, five beers, that they’re just as ecstatic having you right next to their door as you are to be close to them too,” he said into the top of her head. She relaxed a little- un-claimed Omegas sometimes nested together, as a form of closening a friendship bond (or in some rather lurid pornography, a way to attract an Alpha to knot them both), and she found that having Clint, her friend, close by and snuggled in with her, was really quite lovely. It soothed some of the anxiety she’d been feeling over not having an Alpha in her nest with her; not all of it, but some at least.

“They don’t even know me, Barton,” she said, feeling herself start to drift. Clint snorted, and she felt him pat her head as she sank into a fuzzy, pleasant little sleep.

“Give it twenty-four hours, Darce. You’ll know them more than you’ll wanna by then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy bloops, you guys. You _guys_. 
> 
> You guys are amazing and made me cry. 63 freaking comments on the first chapter? So many suggestions that I got to trawl through, and make note of? Holy crapola. I just... I got no words for it. Okay I do, and you just read them all (2400ish of them!), because yeah, you inspired me so much and made me feel so good... I am spoilt. I am going to want that level of commenting awesomeness on every chapter now and return to my dressing room in a snit if it doesn't happen. Man. I feel like the luckiest writer in the whole world.
> 
> Snuggles to all of you. Just so many snuggles. I hope this chapter hit a few good buttons for ya. Next chapter will be up next Monday!
> 
> There definitely might be some break-and-entering then... but if you wanna see something in particular, you better let me know!
> 
> I love you, I love you, I looooove you.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More nesting. And sandwiches. And visitors. And sandwiches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because someone said they were stuck in their house due to the Texas flooding, I got this written up today as a surprise to maybe help them keep entertained.
> 
> Thanks to Chrissi for the quick one-over beta job.

Darcy wasn’t sure how long she napped because having a second Omega in the nest made her feel so at ease she just kept drifting every time Clint rustled and woke her up. She ended up with her head pillowed on his stomach, his hand tangled in her curls as he stroked his fingers along her scalp. Everything felt sensory in the best ways, her skin alive with a million nerve endings that just seemed like they’d woken up for the express purpose of intoxicating her.

All good things, though, were due to come to an end, and she started shifting restlessly as her body began to urgently remind her that certain needs…. Well, needed to be taken care of.

Clint lifted his head from where it was shoved under a pillow and he squinted at her.

“You gotta pee?” he asked, as she curled up once more, huffing into the blankets.

“Nnnngh,” she replied, sitting up. She stretched with a yawn, then reached over to ruffle Clint’s hair, that was already out of sorts from their prolonged and extensive napping.

“Stoppit,” he whined, and then burrowed under some pillows until there was nothing left of him except his butt and his legs, encased in a pair of soft sweatpants. She swatted his rump, and he wriggled it in response, before the heap of pillows and blankets deflated as he sighed out a breath.

Darcy considered Clint a pretty close friend, and while maybe she would have been hurt by his designation deception, they’d talked a bit between napping and snuggles, smoothing over any potential for The Sads between them. Now she was just happy to be sharing her nesting time with him, especially because it made it way less awkward if Clint was also hanging out with her outside Steve and Bucky’s apartment.

It made it way totally less weird, right? She poked her head out of the closet door. The hall was empty, and she fortified her nerves as she began creeping towards the apartment door. Just as she reached it, the automatic lock clicked off, and it opened an inch, reacting to her biosignature just as if it was her own apartment. Steve must’ve put in the request to add her to the allowed occupants. With her heart in her throat, she pushed the door open softly and let it shut behind her.

The apartment was… the word she was looking for, in the nicest possible way, was  _ spartan. _ A low, plain black leather couch sat at the far end of the big living room, with a flat-screen TV mounted across from it, at eye-level. The open-plan apartment had to be triple the size of hers (which she didn’t feel grumpy about; it wasn’t like she was out saving the world on the regular), and it had thick carpet that rolled almost right up to the breakfast bar at the kitchen, which didn’t even have bar stools. She frowned.

It didn’t seem like the apartment of two young men. There were no dishes piled in the sink, no trinkets anywhere, no posters for video games… but then, it wasn’t like Steve and Bucky were the  _ normal _ kind of young men. Her cheeks pinked up.

Definitely not normal.

She scooted to the little powder room to do her necessaries, and was relieved when she popped back out and all was still quiet in the apartment. Maybe she could make it to the-

“Hey,” Bucky’s hazy voice, sleep-filled, made her freeze mid-step. She looked over her shoulder. He was leaning against the doorway of the hall that lead the bedrooms.

Fuck. He was shirtless.

A tiny noise emerged from her lips, and his mouth curved up into a grin.

“You hungry?” he asked, crossing the room to stand just a few feet from her. She saw his fingers on his left hand twitch, the metal glinting and catching her eye. She jerked her gaze up to his face.

“Um… I guess?” She hitched her shoulder, tugging her shirt up, self-consciously as it’d slid down her shoulder during some nesting bliss with Clint. Bucky’s fingers twitched again and he opened up the fridge, pulling out a few items and setting them on the counter.

“You sleep good?” he asked as she watched him make her an obscenely delicious looking nutella and peanut-butter sandwich, that had her wandering up to the breakfast nook and totally not drooling at all.

“Um, yeah, I did… thanks… it feels weird, to be, you know, nesting, and stuff, but, hey, first time’s the charm, or whatever,” she caught herself babbling as Bucky watched her, his amused expression never wavering. The plate clicked on the dark granite countertop as he set down her sandwich, cut into four neat triangles. He turned and poured her glass of milk, and then crossed his arms.

She waited a beat.

“Eat,” he said, and then  _ winked, _ at her. “Or be eaten.”

She coughed and grabbed a triangle of sweet-bread-choco-nut-amazingness.

“So is this a thing?” she asked, waving what was left of the first piece of sandwich after she’d swallowed a generous few mouthfuls. Bucky’s eyebrow rose.

“Is what a thing?”

“Like, does every Omega nesting get Alpha-snacks?” she clarified. Bucky’s amused expression softened into something sweeter, gentler, and he folded his arms on the counter, leaning forward.

“Haven’t had a lot of Omegas nesting outside my door, Doll, so I don’t got a lot to go on. Just what my instincts are telling me to do,” he said. There was a tone in his voice she couldn’t quite place, a low burr in his words, making them thick and slow.

She was speaking her very next thought before she could stop herself,

“And what’re your instincts telling you to do?” she asked, feeling her cheeks go even hotter. Fuck, this nesting shit was crazy. Finally experiencing it was like getting a pop culture reference after nearly fifteen years of sitcom jokes that’d never made sense.

“Oh, Sweetheart,” Bucky said, drawling out the affectionate nickname that she’d done nothing to earn, and yet hearing him call her that made her want to  _ do something _ to deserve it. “That’s not polite dinnertime conversation,” he finished, each word crisp with the heat of his intent. She felt pinned by his gaze, and she froze, sandwich halfway to her mouth. It was only when a bit of nutella dripped from her sandwich to splatter on the plate that she looked down and shoved the rest of the soft white bread into her mouth.

Because right then? She did  _ not _ trust herself to answer with something civil and appropriate. Should she feel so warm from nesting? Her clothes were oppressively hot.

“Um,” she said after washing down the rest of her mouthful with some milk. “I’m just gonna bring the rest of this back to my nest. Clint might be hungry.”

Bucky’s face transformed from smug-maybe-turned-on to what-the-fuck-huh? in an instant.

“Clint?”

 

It turned out that Clint’s designation hadn’t been just a secret from Darcy. She got it out of the other Omega that he’d been keeping it from everyone except medical, and Nat, of course, who knew by virtue of nothing could ever be kept from her (although apparently, according to Clint, she was very good about not hunting out hidden Christmas gifts, because she was rather fond of the surprise, and didn’t like to ruin anyone’s careful gift-buying plans). Bucky hadn’t minded Clint bunking down in with Darcy, although he’d been a bit confused, and had left the two Omegas to their nesting with little more than a gruff offer to get them anything they needed.

They’d been alone for a good few hours when the elevator dinged in the hall. Clint sat up first, pushing Darcy behind him, a gesture that both amused her and annoyed her at the same time.

“We’re in the tower, Clint, and you’re an Omega too,” she protested as he half-sat on her.

“Uh huh,” was his only answer. A second later he relaxed as Jane popped her head in, a dreamy smile on her face.

“I heard you guys were nesting,” she said, and then without waiting, she kicked off her sneakers and crawled right in, settling down with a happy sigh. “Ohgodyes,” she mumbled, putting her head on a pillow.

“Oh shit, you were doing testing all day,” Darcy said, remembering with guilt that she should have been there to watch Jane and make sure that the other Omega had everything she needed… including naps.

“S’fine,” Jane said with a flap of her hand, burrowing into the blankets. “This’s’good, this’s’fine.”

Darcy stifled a giggle when Clint smirked, reaching over to tug a blanket up over Jane’s figure.

“And then there were three,” Clint whispered gravely, and then snickered before snuggling up next to Darcy again with a sigh. “I’m fuckin’ spoilt,” he said as he lay there in the dim light that filtered in from outside in the hall. “Two pretty girls, and I get to nest with them? Not a guy alive who’s so lucky as me.” His eyes were swooping closed as Darcy wriggled and then arranged herself so she had an arm over his chest, and her head on his shoulder.

“You need to nest more,” she said softly. “I’m sure nobody would look at you funny.” Clint yawned, and then patted at her head absently, clearly already starting to drift.

“Would feel weird after so many years of not… but… maybe you’re…” his words ended in a small, adorable snore and she peeked up at him through her lashes. His head was tilted back, mouth open, clearly gone. Multiple Omegas nesting together wasn’t entirely uncommmon, mostly happening in Omega-exclusive dorms at college, really. Something about their hormones, one specifically called hydroxyomeglase, induced a sleepy, lethargic state if too many Omegas nested in together. A lot like the same nappishness that someone felt after eating too much Turkey at Christmas.

It was one of the reasons why she’d chosen a mixed-designation dorm when she’d attended Culver. Her one aunt, a cranky old bitch that Darcy hated with a passion, had chalked it up to Darcy’s “nest envy”, but it was more that Darcy was worried about getting sucked into an Omega cuddle-pile and failing out of school.  _ That _ outcome wasn’t unheard of either.

Given how comfortable she felt, snuggling between Jane and Clint, she gave the odds of her having flunked out of Culver a solid ten to one. Hopefully her nesting-cycle wouldn’t last too long, or Jane wouldn’t be getting any science done for at least a week.

Darcy yawned, rolled over on her belly, and hunkered down for a good, drug-induced nap.

 

The heated, raised voices of two men woke her, and she sat up with a start. Clint was crouched in the doorway, his hair sticking even more straight up if that was possible.

“-my closet,” Steve’s voice was laced with irritation.

“And while the lady is in possession of it for the purposes of nesting, it is not yours. You relinquished any such claim to it when you gave her tacit permission to nest there,” Thor was saying, equally irritated. What the hell was Thor doing outside of the closet? She looked over at Jane, who was also sitting up, looking sleepy, and guilty, if that was possible. As Alphas went, Thor was pretty chill, and never acted remotely possessive over Jane; in fact he was a hell of a lot more respectful of her than almost any Alpha Darcy had ever seen with their Omega.

“What makes you the appropriate damn guardian in this situation then?” Steve asked. Darcy shuffled forward, ducking under Clint’s chest so she could peek out through the crack in the door. Thor had his back to them, his hammer dangling loosely from one wrist, although the presence of his weapon suggested something a hell of a lot more tense than  _ friendly team discussion _ .

“As a bonded Alpha, I am more than appropriate to protect the Omegas while they nest,” Thor said calmly. “Since there are two unbonded Omegas-”

Clint whined softly.

“Fuck I knew this was going to come back to bite me in the ass,” he whispered to Darcy, who stifled a giggle. He pinched her and she yipped.

“Have you made a claim for either one?” Thor had continued talking while Clint had been grousing over his newly-exposed designation.

There was silence.

“Oh shit,” Clint said, but it came out more  _ awwwwww shiiii, _ and Darcy was tempted to pinch him back for being a smarmy little fuck. She tried to look around Thor, but he was so damn bulky all she could see were Steve’s legs to the knees.

“You would know if I had,” Steve replied, and Darcy swore blind his teeth were gonna crack from how tight they were clenched- she could hear it in his voice.

“Then you have no need to be here-” Thor started to say, when Darcy popped out of the cupboard, shoving Clint back inside.

“Hi,” she said, as both Alphas turned to look at her. Thor immediately smiled and wrapped her up in his arms tightly. She heard Steve’s shoes scraping over the floor restlessly, but she returned Thor’s hug with affection.

“Your first nesting,” Thor said when he let her go, expression partly solemn, partly exuberant. “A momentous occasion for any Omega.”

Steve cleared his throat, and Thor glanced at his team-mate, and current source of irritation.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here,” Darcy began, and when Thor opened his mouth to speak, she hushed him by beaking his lips closed between her fingers. “Nuh uh. Listen. I’m good here. Steve’s fine. He’s been polite. No Alpha nonsense. Clint’s fine.”

“I could use another sandwich,” Clint called from within the closet.

“Me too,” Jane piped up. Darcy resisted the urge to rub her hand over her face, mostly because she was still pinching Thor’s lips shut.

“Sandwiches,” Darcy amended, and immediately noted that Steve practically quivered, he was so stiff. It looked like if he didn’t go and fetch her said sandwiches right that instant, he’d implode, or combust. Thor, mouth still smushed in her pincer-grip, had the decency to manage some sort of smooshy expression of contrition. “We need sandwiches. And we’re fine. Will you both be good? You’re totally cramping my nesting styles, got it?”

Steve stared at her, eyes wide, and then he nodded. She swore that he would have saluted her, if it wouldn’t have been so ridiculous. She glanced at Thor, who also nodded. She let his face go and he sighed, rubbing his hand over his mouth.

“I do not mean to overstep,” Thor said.

“Well ya did,” Darcy replied, before hugging him. “It’s sweet. Now pop your head in there and give Jane a kiss so I can get back to nesting.” Thor smiled at her and complied, leaving her, for the moment, with Steve.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, his shoulders tense. “I didn’t intend to…”

“Steve, seriously,” she said, trying to bite back a yawn. More naps sounded just about right, and his scent was lulling her back into a relaxed state. “It’s good. Everything’s good. Just no more Alpha-posturing out here, or I swear to infant Jesus I will find another floor to nest on.”

_ Even if the eye-candy wouldn’t be as good? Don’t even try to lie to yourself, Darcy, _ she scolded herself internally.

Steve’s breathing hitched to a stop for a moment and then he nodded.

“Let me go get you those sandwiches,” he said.

“See that you do,” she replied, imperiously, and more than a little giddy at being able to order someone like him around. Steve’s eyebrows rose for a moment and he smiled, a darker expression than he’d been wearing previously.

“Obeying orders like that goes both ways, Miss Lewis,” he murmured quietly, for her ears alone. “Don’t think I won’t remember how bossy you were, in the future.” There was a heated promise in his voice that had all of her muscles clenching down for a moment. Then he was turning on his heel, and striding down the hall to his doorway. She only let out the breath she’d been holding when Thor wrapped her up in his arms again, and promised to return in a few hours to fetch his Jane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man. Opening up my inbox every few hours is like a freaking treasure trove of delight here. I'm on a pretty long road trip right now, so it's been wonderful to have your feedback and comments... you guys are making me squee so much.
> 
> I hope you don't mind the worldbuilding.... I'm really getting into it deeper than I normally do with ABO fic. <3 Love you love you love you!! I am so spoilt. <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Chrissi for cheerleading! Without her there would be no this fic.

Darcy fell asleep to a full, snuggly nest of other Omegas, and woke by herself. She yawned and stretched, the lingering scents of Clint and Jane still keeping her at ease. It had been nice, having them both nested in with her, but as she rustled around in the blankets, she was glad to have some more room to stretch out properly. Plus… well, she felt the overwhelming need to make space for an  _ Alpha _ , and having Omegas in with her had begun to make her feel a little cramped. Plus she could seriously use a shower. She sat up at that thought, hemming and hawing over the intelligence behind showering in the Alphas’ apartment, or being more sensible in going downstairs to her own apartment.

In the end, her Omega instincts won out, and she found herself sneaking (with permission) into Steve and Bucky’s place. FRIDAY helpfully informed her that the two men were out, she had the whole floor to herself, and that she had permission to use whatever she saw fit. The thought turned her a bit pink in the cheeks, that Bucky and Steve’d even bothered to let FRIDAY know that Darcy was allowed to mess in all their things.

The bathroom she’d used before wouldn’t do; it was a powder room and didn’t have a shower. She girded her loins (almost figuratively, because she was taking risks, descending into an Alpha’s lair so soon after nesting. She did  _ not _ want to have an involuntary heat, her first one, just from having a shower around Alpha pheromones), and crept down the hallway that lead to the more private quarters of their apartment. There were four bedrooms, two scented heavily by the Alphas who inhabited them. She didn’t enter those two, didn’t even  _ look _ into them because that felt like such a huge violation of privacy that it made her skin itch. Instead she picked one of the other bedrooms, unoccupied and clearly meant for guests, although if a guest had ever been in one, she’d eat her socks. It was more of the same: no clutter, not a single hint of personality, and the white-walled room could have done with a lick of cheerful paint and a few rugs on the hardwood floor.

_ Nevermind, Darcy, you’re their squatting Omega, not their decorator, _ she scolded herself, and then slipped into the bathroom. The door clicked shut behind her and she flicked the lock with a sense of relief and safety falling over her. There would be no interruptions, even if the boys came home. She was safe from them.

Or so she thought. She turned, and felt her jaw drop. A basket sat on the counter, clearly left there for her, if the name written on the tag hanging off of one handle meant anything, stuffed to the brim with bath supplies, good for an Omega who was nesting. There were soft skin-scrubs, meant for extra-sensitive skin, and what looked like a small fortune in lotions and face masks.

The serious level of shit she was in hit her. This wasn’t the kind of gift given to a friend. She minced over to the basket and stared down at the contents, wrinkling her nose. A rainbow array of bath bombs were nestled in paper wrappings, their shapes that of pressed candies and cakes. There were soft, microfiber washcloths folded up to look like even more little slices of cake. Body butter, because sometimes nesting Omegas got a little, er, bloated, from all the snacks they consumed given by overeager Alphas hoping to urge on a heat, would soothe her skin once she was out of the shower.

“Shiitakes,” she whimpered, “those handsome fucks are courting me.”

She swallowed down another whine of fear, because, and she had to be absolutely honest with herself: she wasn’t exactly mad at the idea. Just the thought of either one of them, being interested in her? It made her breath catch in her throat. She steadied herself with a hand wrapped around the edge of the counter, and then a thought hit her.

How’d they know she’d pick this bathroom?

She flung the door open and scooted across the hallway into the other guest bedroom. She pushed the bathroom door open with trepidation and stopped dead in her tracks.

Heat rushed to her cheeks.

A matching basket, with a matching little name-card dangling from a ribbon, was waiting for her. They weren’t psychic and they didn’t figure she’d pick the other bathroom. Oh hell no. They’d just made sure that whichever room she wandered into, she’d find everything she’d need.

_ Get your shit together, woman, _ she thought, and grimly picked out a shower gel (vanilla with a hint of spicy cinnamon, it warmed her nose and smelt like cookies), some shampoo and conditioner (specially formulated for Omegas, it said on the label), then turned on the shower.

She tried not to freak out about the fact that all of the products were the bespoke kind, from a specific apothecary that catered to the elite Omegas and their football-playing, Wall Street investing Alphas they tended to be bonded to. For fucks sake, she’d seen an article about the exclusive shop in the last month’s issue of  _ Vogue _ .

“Custom blended, artisanal shower gel,” she muttered softly, “and it’s going down the drain regardless.”

Despite her salty words, there was an intense flutter of excitement humming away in her belly that could not be quelled. They’d done this for  _ her _ . She shivered as she turned on the water and squirmed out of her clothes. The shower was one of those walk-in kinds that didn’t have a curtain because it was so deep, and she sighed as she stepped under the stream of water that erupted from the rain-shower head above.

She was drenched in seconds, and as she lathered herself up, the vanilla-spice scent blossomed all around her.

The  _ Vogue _ article had been right. Custom blended Omega products were way better than the dollar-store variety she tended to get herself. She was just conditioning her hair, trying to come up with excuses to stay in the shower for a few minutes longer when there came a knock at the bathroom door.

She froze.

“Darcy?” Bucky’s voice thrummed along her veins and she stepped out of the shower-spray so she could hear him better.

“Uh.. yeah?” she called.

“FRIDAY told me.. Well, I was thinking you’d need some clothes…”

Crap. Had she seriously gotten into the shower without bringing new clothes in with her?

“Oh.. yeah… whoops, ha ha,” she said lamely.

“I’ll just leave the bag on the doorknob,” Bucky called out to her, and she heard a soft scraping sound. “No rush,” he added, and then there was silence.

She bit her lip and rinsed the rest of the conditioner from her hair. The towels were more of the soft kind, meant for delicate Omegas (ugh, was she really considering herself a  _ delicate _ Omega? Seriously, five minutes in a luxury shower lathered up in a few hundred dollars worth of cosmetics, and she was turning into one of the Real Omegas of Orange County). She dried off quickly and twisted her hair up into a loose bun, before finally working up the nerve to open the door. She fished the bag off the knob, tried not to  _ lose her shit _ at the fancy gift bag stuffed with tissues, and bit back a helpless whine.

Either Bucky had money to burn, or he was flat-out trying to impress her. She fished out a small card that was tucked into the tissue, the handwriting familiar, along with the neutral-fresh scent of Beta coming off the paper.

 

_ Darcy, _

 

_ Stop freaking out and just put the clothes on. _

 

_ Nat _

 

Well, that solved that mystery of how the man might have figured out her clothing size, before she ever questioned it. Still, when she pulled out the garments, she knew without a doubt that it had been Bucky that’d picked them, and not Nat.

Nat would have never chosen the soft, silver-gray silk low-cut booty shorts. Natasha was practical. She believed in jersey cotton for every-day, and stretch lace and power mesh for nights out and missions. The panties Darcy held in her hands had rolled, hand-stitched hems, and gathered softly in pleats over the the thighs so they’d splay nicely against her skin when she sat down.

And- she lifted them to her face and inhaled. The subtle scent of Bucky clung to them. She inhaled again to stop a noise from escaping her, and slipped them on, feeling a bit like  _ he _ was putting them on her directly, and it was his warm hands clasping her hips as she surveyed her half-naked self in the mirror. Huffing out a breath, she pulled out the next item, and this was more Nat’s style, a soft matching long-line shelf-bra that wouldn’t do much to contain Darcy’s assets but would be comfortable for a prolonged nesting. She squirmed into it, the fabric rolling on her still-damp skin, and she tried not to curse as she got it to lay flat against her ribs.

Everything fit perfectly. Because, of course,  _ Nat. _

Darcy peeked into the bottom of the bag, pushing aside tissue to pull out a t-shirt, bamboo if she knew her fibers, this time in a gunmetal gray, and a pair of equally soft, bamboo-cotton blend shorts that hugged her to just above her knees. The clothing was mostly seamless; nothing to catch or irritate her sensitive skin, and the whole thing was capped off by a pair of fuzzy (ridiculously so) pair of socks that she snuggled her toes into.

“Friday?” she asked.

“Sergeant Barnes has left the apartment,” the AI informed her gently, and Darcy breathed out a sigh of a relief. Something about coming out, in the clothes he’d picked for her, was a little too intense. She was in his, well, his  _ den _ for lack of a better term, wearing items that smelt faintly of him on top of the scents from the Omega shop they’d been purchased at, and she felt like she was marked.

It didn’t make her uncomfortable.

And that fact made her uncomfortable.

She should have been livid, feeling the hand of Alpha ownership on the back of her neck from all the gifts. Hell, hadn’t she made waves at Culver by marching in every Omega-rights rally right from her first week on campus? Except here, in the apartment, right in the heart of an Alpha-lair, she felt comfortable, not oppressed. Steve and Bucky had done everything in their power to make her feel at ease, to hang back, to not make demands, or assume anything really. She knew, in her heart, if she wanted to finish off her nesting and return to her life without so much as a  _ Hey dudes _ , in the hallway, they’d have been fine with it, fancy courting gifts or not.

She could happily tell them to fuck right off to the 40’s, and they’d leave her in peace.

That was half the reason she was certain her emotions were going so haywire.

“Ugh,” she vocalized, trying to sum up her mixed up feelings with one word, and braided her hair so it wouldn’t frizz up once she got back to the nest.

 

Bucky’d paced the length of the common room twenty times before finally giving in and asking FRIDAY if Darcy was done showering. He’d nearly lost it when he’d walked into the apartment. He’d had to keep himself from breaking down the guest-bathroom door as her scent, just inside, hovering, teased him something merciless. Christ, it wasn’t fair that any Omega could smell so good, and it doubly wasn’t fair that the good-smelling Omega would also happen to be gorgeous and a complete smarty-pants to boot. Intelligence, sass, and a great ass were all the secret ingredients to making Bucky weak-kneed (hence his horrible affection for Rogers), and Darcy Lewis had those qualities in spades.

Receiving the all-clear, he stormed upstairs and then crept along the hallway to where he could hear Darcy making nesting noises inside the cupboard. She was humming to herself again, phone playing music, and rustling around in her blankets. No-doubt she was fluffing up her pillows and making it comfortable for one Omega now that the other two had abandoned the nest to its original occupant.

He stood there, breathing in the thick air, and biting the inside of his cheek to keep from panting.

He knew he was on shaky ground, playing with fire, but he couldn’t help it. He had to push his limits.

“Darcy?” he asked, and he heard her yelp inside.

“Christ! Warn somebody!” she snapped, although her voice was quavery more than irritated. He took a long, slow breath to cool his emotions.

“Mind if I…” He pulled the closet door open ever so slightly, and looked inside. Her hair was just come out of a braid, still damp, long curls clinging to her shoulders, and  _ Christ _ , she was wearing his things, his colors, his  _ scent. _ He calmed himself, demanding good behavior out of his rebellious body, and attempted his most charming smile.

It worked, because she sat back, making space for him unconsciously, the clear invitation posture of an Omega welcoming an Alpha into her nest.

“Thanks for the clothes,” she said, tugging at a blanket until it was wrapped around her shoulders. “They’re super comfy. Like, perfect.”

“Good,” he said, eyeing her as she snuggled up, leaning against one long bolster pillow that was half as tall as her torso. “Do you mind if I…?” He gestured into her nest. He saw her visibly swallow, and then she shook her head.

“It’s your closet,” she offered weakly, bringing her knees up to her chest. He couldn’t resist the invitation, as hesitant as it was, and he stepped in, kicking his shoes off outside in the hall. He knelt down, leaving the door open so she wouldn’t feel trapped in there with him, and then crouched, uncertain of his next move.

He hadn’t exactly been thinking with anything other than his hindbrain when it came to her, and so far his hindbrain had basically planned out the following steps:

  1. Give Omega things
  2. Get into nest with Omega
  3. ????
  4. Bond Omega



Well, he had no plans on following step four, since step three was a big blank, and he was only cursorily acquainted with Darcy to begin with, he figured bonding was right out.  _ For now, _ his hindbrain argued.  _ Shut it, _ the rest of his brain countered.

“Did you like the sandwiches?” he asked, stupidly, but luck was with him and Darcy smiled at him, like he wasn’t a bumbling Alpha and hadn’t asked her an asinine question.

“Delish, you have a way with Nutella,” she replied, and he was relieved, so damn relieved, to hear that she was pleased with something he’d done for her. “The basket was a bit.. Uh, I mean, that was kinda…” her cheeks flushed as she stumbled over her words, and he wished he could reach out and rub the inside of his wrist against one of them; feel how soft she was, and get her scent all over him. The sweater he was wearing felt constrictive and too tight, despite being perfectly fitted to him when he’d put it on.

“It was a bit much?” he asked, figuring out where she was going. She puffed out her cheeks for a moment, and when she looked down at her hands, a little smile curling across his lips, he thought his heart was going to explode right in his chest. His left hand clenched involuntarily and he buried it under a quilt to hide the reaction.

“It was nice,” she said simply. “It was really nice. Any Omega would be so lucky to have such attentive Alphas looking after her wellbeing.”

He stared at her.  _ Oh, Doll, it’s not just your wellbeing I wanna look after, _ he thought and then shut the door on that. He should not be imagining her, damp curls sprawled over the bolster, as he tugged down the soft fabric of her shorts and buried his face in her cunt as he  _ looked after _ all of her.

A low, familiar thrum of heat pulsed in his belly, and he froze for a moment.

“Bucky?” her voice broke through, and he knew he needed to get out of there as quickly as possible before that heat grew and became a dangerous inferno, sweeping her up in it. Steve. He needed Steve. He needed Steve five minutes ago.

“Listen,” he said, trying not to be curt, “I… you gonna be okay if me and Steve aren’t around for a few days?” He kept it casual, trying not to let on that even being close to her was sending his body on intense highs that he hadn’t felt in decades. From her blank expression, he’d succeeded.

“Yeah of course,” she said, and then gave a sly smile. “Mission?”

“Something like that,” he replied, and then his instincts grabbed him and he reached out, taking her hand in his. The shock of skin-on-skin touch nearly startled him into full rut right there, because he couldn’t mistake that pulsing heat in his groin as anything else, and how could he have been so stupid and selfish to set foot in her nest,  _ for fucks sake, Barnes. _

It didn’t help that she was staring up at him with those soft, blue doe-eyes of hers, looking sleepy and nested, and so close to perfect he just wanted to kiss her-

He brought her fingertips to his mouth, and brushed them over the soft skin of his lower lip before she could protest. Her own lips parted in surprise, and then he pulled back.

“Shit, sorry,” he stammered out. She almost followed him; he saw the involuntary tensing of her muscles as her body demanded she move toward him, and not let him escape. He was a pretty trap - dangerous and deadly, and wrapped up in the kind of pheromones she couldn’t resist. He should have felt guilty. He didn’t.

“Are you going?” her voice had dropped an octave, and she was eyeing him like she wanted to eat him.

“Probably for the best,” he said, matching her tone. She licked her lips.

“Could I…”

“Anything,” he interrupted her, tense and eager to give her whatever, anything, everything, she wanted or asked for.

“Your sweater,” her words were a harsh whisper, and she had risen up on her knees a bit, trying to go to him but fighting it. “Could I….”

He was out of it in a moment, and reeling back. He needed to get out of there, before he did something they’d both regret.

Her hands wrapped around the sweater and she pulled it into her chest. The flushed look that erupted in her cheeks did him in.

“I have to go,” he said, and he backed out of her nest so fast that he stumbled on a quilt, and nearly ripped a pillow in half when his left hand grabbed it for balance. Darcy squeaked and looked like she was about to follow him, but he flung himself down the hallway and slammed the door to the apartment too fast for her.

“FRIDAY,” he breathed, his chest labouring for air that wasn’t scented with sweet Omega. “Call Steve.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH YOU GUYS. Your comments have helped me through a rough week. I hope you liked this chapter.
> 
> So, yay or nay: would you be okay with Clint and Darcy having a little platonic Omega sexytimes in an upcoming chapter? Let me know. I have something, uh, planned, but it won't change the course of the romantic ships tagged up top.
> 
> Also, next chapter is gonna get all explicit up in here.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heats and ruts oh my.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops my finger slipped on the rating.
> 
> To celebrate my hitting 300 people on my tumblr, I thought I'd post this chapter early!!!!!!! WEEEE.

Steve got the urgent text from FRIDAY, requesting him to attend to Bucky back at their apartment, while he was out shopping for Darcy. He’d been browsing an upscale shop that specifically catered to Alphas who were in the process of wooing a skittish Omega, second-guessing himself the entire time. The fact was, he was ashamed to admit, he didn’t know much about her. Smart, kind to animals, quick with a quippy little comment, and a great rack. What was he supposed to do? Buy her bras? He dismissed that idea as too forward.

Instead he’d found a couple of books that he’d read over the last six months he thought she’d like: a pretty notebook with a watercolor mermaid on the front, and a set of colorful pens that promised friction-based erasability.

Maybe the scented candles, the matching silk pillowcases with her initial monogrammed on them, and the box of expensive, hand-molded raspberry chocolates were a little overkill.

And the $300 faux fur throw that felt like a baby bunny and was happily cruelty free. Maybe that was a bit much too.

Thankfully, he had to leave it all behind, mildly impatient as he gave his name and number for the girl behind the counter, and made his way home. It was probably a good thing he hadn’t ended up purchasing the lot, since he’d driven in on his motorcycle. He’d maybe call back to the store and ask them to package it all up and deliver it to the tower.

Yeah. That was a better idea.

He was pondering whether he should also add to his order a salt-rock lamp or two, to help… balance her energies in the nest, as he walked into the entry hall of his floor. He stopped in his tracks for a moment, as the sweet scent of Omega was overlaid with something else, something darker, deeper.

Bucky in rut.

“Shit,” he hissed the word out, and normally he’d stop by Darcy’s nest to see if she was alright (purely out of gentlemanly manners, not at all because he was gone on the girl when he shouldn’t have damn well been gone), but he knew that Bucky needed him. He let himself into the apartment, the scent of an Alpha rutting even stronger in the air as he kicked off his shoes and approached the hallway to their rooms. Bucky’s scent trailed off though, into one of the guest rooms, and Steve stopped short to see Bucky sat on the bathroom floor, curled around a towel.

From the smell of it, the towel that Darcy had used. Steve tried not to crack a smile, and instead treated this with the seriousness it deserved.

“Having a hard time there, pal?” he asked as he sauntered up, knowing what Bucky would need. He tossed his shirt off to one side and thumbed open the button on his jeans.

“Fuck off,” Bucky said, his voice hoarse and breathless.

“More like fuck  _ you _ ,” Steve replied, shucking his jeans down his legs, feeling himself getting hard at just the sight of the other Alpha, squirming and hot for it. “She get you all worked up?”

“Nested,” Bucky said with a groan, his eyes closing as he curled around the towel like he’d been punched in the gut, “she nested and… shit, Steve.” Bucky lifted his head to look up at his best friend and sometimes mate, eyes glassy.

Steve took pity on the other Alpha, mostly because he loved Bucky and seeing him suffer wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed, but also partly because he was starting to feel the effects of Bucky’s and Darcy’s scents, mingling and getting his own blood up. Bucky reached up to him, and they tumbled backwards out of the bathroom, onto the hard floor.

Bucky was breathing hard as Steve pushed his sweatpants down and out of the way, gripping the other man’s hips.

“Got you,” he murmured, seeing the low hang of Bucky’s full erection, knot half-blown already. “Shit you are in a bad way.” He gave a tentative, full-length stroke of Bucky’s cock, and took in the way the Alpha shuddered in response. Steve gripped around the knot, giving it a healthy squeeze.

Bucky moaned and buried his face in Steve’s collarbone, his mouth wet on the skin.

“She’s right outside,” Steve murmured into the top of Bucky’s head, knowing it would get the other man really going. He was rewarded with a low growl that vibrated right up from Bucky’s sternum. He squeezed Bucky’s knot slowly, clamping down and then rubbing up the length of his cock. Bucky’s hips jerked reflexively. “She’s right outside, and she smells  _ so _ good, scenting up the place, making the whole hallway smell like a damn flower shop in the height of summer.”

“Wisteria and sugar,” Bucky whispered, his mouth brushing over Steve’s skin, his tongue flicking out to taste the salt-sweat there. Steve curled an arm around Bucky’s back and tugged him closer, pressing them almost belly-to-belly, so he could really reach down and give Bucky what he was so desperate for.

“Imagine that, all laid out for you, me holding her wrists, her strugglin’ to present, cause a girl like that’s gonna wanna arch her back for you, don’t you think?” Steve purred, the thrumming vibration starting near his belly, and Bucky relaxed into the long, loose strokes that Steve was running along his cock.

“Don’t be mean to her,” Bucky whispered, eyes closed tight as he rolled his hips to meet Steve’s hand. “She’s perfect… I gotta…. She needs…” Bucky couldn’t seem to gather his words together enough to finish his sentences, and Steve figured he had the other man right where he wanted him.

“Gonna watch you knot her,” he said into the shell of Bucky’s ear. Bucky made a small, plaintive noise, and chased Steve’s hand. Steve took pity on him, his own heartbeat keeping pace with Bucky’s, thudding solidly in his ears as he wrapped his fingers around Bucky’s knot, and squeezed down hard.

Bucky cried out and jerked, fist pounding against Steve’s back as he came against Steve’s belly, rubbing the head of his cock there and rutting hard into Steve’s skin.

“Gonna knot her and fuck her with it,” Steve said, drawing out Bucky’s orgasm, knowing that the words would keep the other man going when touch was overwhelming. “You’re gonna pin her down and she’ll be begging for it, begging for you to fill her, to make her yours-”

“Fuck,” Bucky drew the word out, then groaned, rolling his hips once and trying to squirm back from Steve’s hand. “Stop, stop, I’m good.”

Steve chuckled, eyeing the other Alpha’s still hard cock, come leaking from the tip.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” he said, and then with a growl, pinned Bucky to the floor.

  
  
  


She would have been fine if it hadn’t been for the stupid air-vent. The vent, that was apparently, not baffled, so it carried every single sound and  _ scent _ from inside the apartment and piped it directly into her nesting closet.

She’d been kinda, maybe a little excited to learn how to nest.

Having her first heat though?

“No, noooo,” she whined softly to herself, curling up into a tight ball and trying to deny what was happening. Biology was officially a huge fucking asshole and she hated it  _ forever. _

“Fuck science,” she whispered, reaching out a hand for her phone. She needed help. She needed  _ dick. _ Or knots, or really, both. Both was good. But she wasn’t going to ask the super alphas for help, just because they were getting all rutted up and making her life a misery didn’t mean they got to have access to her sacred temple of Omeganess. She shot off a quick text, and was grateful when minutes later, she heard the elevator ding.

“Awww, Darce,” Clint whispered as he crawled over the blankets towards her. Her face felt flushed. Her whole  _ body _ felt flushed. She squirmed on the quilt she was laying on top of, and tried to squeeze her thighs together before burrowing her face in a pillow.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Clint’s voice was soothing as he settled down beside her. “Can I… touch you?”

“Please,” she begged, her voice sobbing. Immediately his hand was on her bare back, and he stroked down her spine. She arched her hips up to him, her body seeming to decide that her ass needed to go up in the air right  _ now. _

“Shit, you’re in full heat. The guys?”

“Shut up, shutupshutup,” she huffed, turning her head to the side to give him a gimlet eye. It wasn’t her fault that nesting had turned into a heat. It was the fault of the two stupid-head Alphas that had kept on dancing around her nest, offering her sandwiches, and conveniently leaving their hormone-laced sweaters for her to curl around and snuggle.  _ Fucking fucks, _ she thought, uncharitably, as another wave of lust swamped her and her ass wriggled higher in the air. Clint’s hands closed around her hips, his fingers tucking under the elastic waistband of her panties. She moaned, reaching out to grab Bucky’s sweater, as Clint peeled her underwear off of her. It stuck briefly to the flesh of her pussy and she whined.

“You’re soaked,” Clint murmured, sounding somewhat caught between awe and panic. She looked over her shoulder at him, and managed the best glare she could while stuck in a situation where she was desperate for any, and all, attention he could dole out for her. He wasn’t an Alpha, but he’d do, especially since she knew that a heat, when unattended by an Alpha, wouldn’t last more than 36 hours.

God she hoped it wouldn’t last more than 36 hours.

“Stupid rutting Alphas,” Clint sounded mad as he petted her hips, and deposited her underwear off to the side.

“Not their fault,” she gasped as she felt his fingers stroking along her soft, wet folds.

“All their fault,” Clint countered. “Why do you think I’ve never decided to settle down with a nice, desgi-phobic Alpha who’s embarrassed his Omega has a dick instead of a pussy? Now hush and let me make you feel good, Darce.”

There was something in Clint’s voice that gave Darcy pause, and she wanted so badly to follow-up on it, but the heat that was consuming her body made it impossible. She wanted one thing: a knot, and quickly.

Too bad that wasn’t exactly in the cards unless she was willing to go banging on Steve and Bucky’s door, which she totally wasn’t. She didn’t know them well enough, and gifts and Alpha-strutting aside, she wasn’t ready for them.

“You’re so worked up,” Clint observed, his thumbs tucking into her inner folds and spreading them apart. Relief flooded through her body that she was finally getting the kind of attention she needed.

“Please,” she begged again, her lower back arching up. She shifted, getting up on her knees, and wishing she had a knotting-pillow to snuggle her hips down onto. But Clint was right there, anticipating her next need before she even knew it. He shoved a wadded up quilt under her belly, plumping it against the fronts of her thighs. She sighed into her arms as she nestled herself down, feeling herself getting more slick and wet as her body readied itself. Her eyes shut and Clint slid between her knees again.

“I can’t make it properly good for you, Darce, but I’m gonna just…” He let out a shuddery breath and she realized, in the back of her head, that maybe Clint was enjoying this as much as she was. The thought made her feel less guilty, because Omegas definitely  _ lent a helping hand _ to one another in a heat when there wasn’t an Alpha around, and cozying up to a Beta wasn’t an option since a Beta would never really understand the deep-seated hunger that took hold of an Omega during a heat.

The idea of a Beta, bewildered or smug, as an Omega lay writhing, was unpalatable and made Darcy whimper with imagined shame.

“What’s wrong?” Clint asked, his tone gentle.

“N-nothing,” she whispered. She felt his hands ghosting over her thighs.

“Darcy, if you… you don’t… I can let you handle it on your own.. I don’t want to hurt you-”

“No, no, please, I need you,” she sobbed, not in the mood to convince him that yes, she was consenting, and yes, she was totally excited and happy to have his hands on her. They’d been close friends for long enough, that she was more than willing to have him take care of her when she was desperate for it.

“Alright, shhh, not going anywhere,” he replied, and then his fingers were stroking over her entrance. She was so wet that his two fingers slipped right in with no resistance. She bit down on the soft, fleshy underside of her forearm, her eyes sliding shut as her body tried to lock down on the intrusion. The muscles of her pussy flexed, and then fluttered as what they found was not thick enough to trigger a full lock. “I don’t…” Clint cleared his throat. “I don’t have one of those knotting uh, dildos or whatever, kid, so…”

Darcy cried out, arching hard as he slipped a third, then fourth finger into her without warning. Abstractly, she knew what he was doing: get something thick inside of her as quickly as possible. The faster she got off, the faster her heat would break, especially if she orgasmed without an Alpha around.

Still, it was a stretch. She panted against the skin of her arm, her body trying to press down against the bundled quilt at the same time as arching up into the pressure of his fingers. She heard Clint release a shuddering breath, and then she felt him press a hot kiss to small of her back, and whisper the word  _ beautiful. _

His thumb flicked through her folds to rub a slow circle over her clit and heat thrummed in her belly. A whine was building in her chest, and she tried to hold it back.

“C’mon, Darce,” he urged her with gentle, light flicks of his thumb over her clit. Each touch had her hips giving a small spasmodic jerk. “You’re safe. I’m right here. Let me know how good it feels.”

She felt him nuzzle the small of her back, the slight scratch of his stubble as he pressed his cheek to her spine, and he whispered again,

“You’re so beautiful, and perfect. C’mon, pretty girl, tell me how good it is.”

Darcy cried out, digging her knees in deep as she arched her back, wanting more of what he was giving her.

_ “Fuck, Bucky,”  _ Steve’s voice echoed down the HVAC vent, and the sound of how wrecked the Alpha was absolutely ruined Darcy. Clint twisted his fingers inside of her, and she moaned, a deep-breaking sound from the bottom of her chest.

“You did that to them,” Clint breathed, sounding half-gone himself, and she could feel him rubbing up against her his dick obscenely hard. “Set them off, cause you’re so damn sexy. And guess what, I get you all to myself, and they don’t get to fucking touch you, although they wish they could.”

She whimpered in response, and he rubbed into her lock spot, stretching his fingers wide until she sobbed in the sheer relief of it. Her body bucked into his and he held her tight. She reached out, blindly, for Bucky’s sweater, and tugged it close so she could breathe him in. That was all it took. That, and Clint sliding all four of his fingers deep inside of her.

She screamed, body locking down on his hand, squeezing so tight that she heard him muffle a curse word into the crook of her neck.

“Oh god,” she panted, breathing into Bucky’s sweater, squirming around Clint’s hand, her thighs slick with her release. Clint was pressing soft, sweet kisses onto the side of her face, and muttering apologies as he gently worked his hand out of her tight heat. “Huh?” she looked at him, feeling bleary and wrung out.

“I said, sorry,” he repeated, guilt on his face. She frowned, and clumsily sat up, reaching for a bottle of water that had been stashed off to the side. Her whole existence felt relaxed, right down to her soul, and he could have told her the building was on fire and she would not have moved.

“Sorry?” What the hell was he sorry for? She wrinkled her nose and then put it all together. “No way,” she said with a shake of her head. “I texted you. I wanted that. I wanted you.”

Clint brightened a bit and she (fumbling and hapless) moved towards him. She sorta warbled her way across the blankets until she could curl up against his side. He pressed a kiss to her damp forehead, and wrapped his arms around her.

“You’re beautiful, you know?” he murmured, and she sighed in contentment.

“That’s nice, gonna sleep now,” she replied, her body demanding rest. The last thing she remembered was Clint tugging a sheet up around her body, and gravity giving way to the atmosphere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry to anyone who isn't a fan of Clint/Darcy. They're not a romantic pairing in this, nor will they be. Just friends helping friends. Omegas helping Omegas.
> 
> Next time... Steve and Bucky smell Darcy on Clint.  
> And the shit hits the fan.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> good things come to those who are late.  
> wait.  
> wait that's not how it goes.
> 
> uh, well you waited! here's an update. it's late. mais oui, monsieur je veux les framboises.

Bucky woke up with a start, mouth dry and fuzzy, Steve sleeping underneath him. Something was wrong. He nudged Steve with his shoulder.

“Gerrup,” he slurred, still rut-drunk. Steve sat up with a grunt, pushing Bucky off of him. They were on the living room floor, that room being closer to the door and closer to Darcy’s nest. Steve’s eyes narrowed as he went from fully passed out and snoring to battle-ready in a half a second.

“She’s gone,” he said, and then he was on his feet and out the front door, apparently not giving a flying fuck at all that he was naked. Bucky cursed and grabbed the towel Darcy had used from off the couch cushion, wrapping it around himself, and then grabbed a small throw pillow in case Steve needed to hide his crown jewels once they were out in the publically accessible hall.

“Jesus, Mary n’-” Steve’s cursing was cut off as Bucky made tracks to pull up beside him. The storage closet door was open, the nest empty, just the depression of several bodies in the pillows and blankets and-

Clint  _ and _ Darcy. Their scents were thick on the back of Bucky’s tongue, along with the heavy layer of sex mixed into it. He sagged for a moment, nearly going into rut again right there, but Steve grabbed him by the arm.

“We need to find her,” he said, looking half-crazed, his hair matted and sticking up all over.

“That’s insane, she’s probably gone back down to her apartment,” Bucky countered, trying to be reasonable. She wasn’t  _ theirs _ . They had no claim to her. For that matter, they’d just met her. The whole thing was fucking insanity, and Bucky had half a mind to put a stop to it, even as he was wearing the towel layered in her scent and bathwater around his waist.

Some days he really fucking hated designations and the stupid-ass, dumb shit that it drove him to do against his better judgement.

Steve growled at him.

Bucky threw up both hands in submission.

“Alright, alright. We’ll go looking. You take the common floor, and I’ll go check out her place,” he said. Steve nodded, and then smirked. “What?” Bucky asked, feeling defensive.

He felt the unwrapping situation as the knot he’d done gave way to gravity and the towel slipped to the floor.

“That,” Steve said with a laugh. “Maybe we should get dressed, at least. Can’t go hunting our girl in our all together.”

  
  


The fuzzy feeling of being wrapped up in something warm invaded Darcy’s consciousness. She came to in a strange bedroom, and swallowed the sleep taste from her mouth. Where was she?

A bark alerted her to an incoming dog, and Lucky, Clint’s retriever, bounded onto the bed. A laugh was startled out of her lungs as the overgrown puppy licked her right across her face and pinned her down into the sheets.

“Shit! Shit! Lucky, no, down!” Clint came barrelling into the room after the dog, his shirt on backwards and his hair standing up in every direction. The dog happily ignored him, wriggling his entire body as he tried to wag his tail and just ended up vibrating almost off the bed. Darcy wrapped her arms around him and gave him all the pets he could stand.

Eventually he flopped over, rolling onto his back and gave her a beseeching look. She sighed and started rubbing his belly.

“He’s just like you, Barton. He’d do anything for a rub and tickle,” Darcy said, shooting a teasing look at her friend. He just stood there, his cheeks pink. He shuffled his feet and then he hung his head.

“Oh no you don’t,” Darcy said, sitting up and tugging the blankets around her naked form. She felt better than she had done in weeks, and it was all thanks to him. If it hadn’t been for him taking her into hand like he’d done, she would have been scratching at Steve and Bucky’s door, yowling like a cat in heat. She was damn grateful. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Are you fine?”

“Sorta,” Clint mumbled under his breath and then rubbed the back of his neck. “I feel guilty I guess.”

“Please don’t,” Darcy murmured, then held a hand out to him. He joined her on the bed, snuggling up against her with a sigh. They went over, and Lucky crawled on top of them, wriggling happily at the cuddle pile on the bed. Clint didn’t even try to pretend he wasn’t enjoying himself, and he gave Lucky an enthusiastic little head scratch. The dog made a happy  _ growf _ noise and licked his owner. “The only thing I want from you right now, Clint, is some food. Or something.”

Clint lit up.

“I’ve got pizza,” he said and Lucky sat up, barking. He winced. “I mean, P-I-Z-Z-A.”

Darcy laughed as Lucky tilted his head quizzically at Clint. The dog was smarter than most people, and seemed to be trying to make heads and tails of what Clint had meant.

Clint huffed out a breath,  _ so much like his pupper, _ and rummaged around in a drawer from his side-table. He produced a bar of chocolate and she pounced on it. Clint let out a full-body laugh as she ripped the wrapping right off of it and crammed it into her mouth.

“Starving, huh?” he observed, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Guess I tired you out.”

“Gross,” she commented, but she couldn’t deny the pleasant, buzzy feeling in her body. She felt wrung out like a rag, but in the best way.

He leaned and gave her a hug, wrapping his arm around her head, and she felt his mouth press onto the top of her head.

“I’m gonna take care of you,” he said gruffly before pulling away. She shivered and nodded. “How about I go get you some food, yeah? I bet you burnt like four thousand calories yesterday.” He ruffled her hair, drawing a noise of protest from her, and then padded out the door. Lucky looked after him and whined, before looking at Darcy.

“Go on,” she said, with a jerk of her head. He barked and took off after Clint.

 

Clint scratched his head as he looked into the fridge. Something that wouldn’t upset Darcy’s stomach, while being rich enough to sustain her heat but not prolong it… it was a fuckin’ balance, and since he was on black market suppressants, he didn’t exactly know anymore what her heats would need.

It’s not like he had heats on the regular or anything.

Lucky licked at his hand and he absently patted at the dog’s head.

“Whatcha think, Luck? Chocolate mousse? Chicks like chocolate, right?” he asked to himself. Two pairs of footsteps behind, and a soft exhalation of breath, made him pause. His instincts hummed, and he turned his head just in time to yelp and jerk backward as a fist came flying toward him. Pain exploded under his eye as he didn’t move quite fast enough.

“The fuck!” He stumbled back and away from the fridge as Steve yanked his fist back, wheeling around and stalking down the Omega, ready to throw another punch. Bucky was beyond him, face a boiling mask of rage.

Lucky barked, and jumped up, snapping his jaws around Steve’s arm and dragging the man down with surprising strength. For a moment, Clint panicked, thinking that Steve would hurt the dog, but the interference seemed to snap the other man out of it.

“Where did you take her?” Bucky asked, ignoring Lucky who was still gripping onto Steve like Steve was a tasty ham-beast.

“Yeah, alright, good morning Clint, buddy, ol’ pal, nice to see you, thanks for taking care of the Omega that was nesting in our storage closet because we’re inconsiderate fucks who think it’s funny to drive sweet, innocent Omega girls into a heat with our ruts,” Clint rambled, identifying at least three different exit paths that didn’t involve knocking the fridge over onto Steve and Bucky.

Darcy may not have paired up with them (yet) and they were his teammates after all. That meant avoiding dumping heavy appliances on them if it could be helped.

“What’re you talking about?” Steve crossed his arms over his chest, making the man’s ridiculously tight shirt stretch around his muscles even more than usual. Really, that was just  _ rude. _

Bucky subconsciously copied Steve’s posture, and Clint wondered if Tony didn’t call them the wonder twins for no reason.

“You sent her into a goddamn heat, and so I had to take care of it, you inconsiderate Alphaholes,” Clint said, not bothering to elaborate further than that. Frankly, it was none of their damn business. “Now, if I can beg your pardon, I’m going to go bring her some chocolate and make sure she’s okay. Lucky, let go.”

Lucky dropped to the floor with a snort. The immediate demeanor of the two Alphas shifted, from irritable to concerned. Bucky took a step forward, his hand unclenching with the soft sound of metal slicking over metal.

“What do you mean, if she’s okay?” he asked, brow furrowing. Clint nearly threw his hands up in the air, but decided that might be considered an aggressive move, and it was probably wiser to not tip the two men back into  _ grrr-arrrgh _ mode if he could help it.

“Christ, I am not teaching you about the basics of biology when I barely get it myself,  but your… rutting around in your apartment, made shit pretty uncomfortable for her. So I’d say maybe it’s a good idea if you did less posturing at me and more punching your own selves in the face.” Clint stared them both down. The men were quiet for a moment and then Steve’s jaw flexed.

_ Uh oh. _

“What do you mean you took care of it?” Steve asked, his voice low. Clint’s face flushed.

“Well, we… we, uh,” he started, and then Steve growled, interrupting him. The larger man came at him, fist balled and hauled back. Clint stumbled over Lucky, who started barking, and Bucky went to grab at Steve to stop him, wrapping an arm around his neck. That tipped Steve off balance, and he stumbled forward, dragging Bucky with him, slamming Clint up against the fridge, and they all went down in a heap.

There was a healthy dent in the fridge door too, Clint noted absently as he tried to breathe with almost three hundred pounds of man-meat on top of him.

“Gettoff, gettoff,” he wheezed, shoving at Steve’s face and managing to nearly get a finger up one of Steve’s nostrils.

The sound of clicking heels over engineered wood floor paused them in their bizarre tableau.

“Gentlemen,” Pepper Potts stood at one end of the kitchen, her arms folded as she tapped a stylus to the front of her tablet. “I’m not going to ask why you are squabbling in my kitchen, but I am going to suggest that you stop, immediately.”

Clint breathed out slowly as Steve yanked off of him, shoving Bucky away in the process. Miss Potts was an Omega, that may have been true, but she was perhaps the most powerful Omega in the entire world given her position at Stark Industries, and to top it off, the tower was technically  _ her domain, _ and it was only the most stupid of Alphas that challenged the boss Omega in her area of eminence. Bucky sat up, jaw slack before he closed it with a soft  _ click _ and Steve got to his knees, offering Clint a hand.

“Sorry Pepper,” Steve said, his shoulders rounded and his expression contrite, “We were just-”

“Taking this to the gym so I don’t have to replace a second Viking refrigerator in as many months?” Pepper asked, her words sweet and lined with ice at the same time. Bucky coughed and stood up as Clint brushed himself off.

“Yes ma’am,” Bucky said, nudging Steve with his foot, harder than was necessary. The other Alpha got up, bringing Clint with him.

“Am I… good to…” Clint pointed at the door. Pepper dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

“Go check on Darcy,” she said, her focus on the two Alphas. “ _ Boys _ , would you sit down?” She gestured to two barstools at the kitchen island. Steve swallowed so hard it was audible even to Clint, and Bucky looked like he was about to vomit.

_ Well fuckadoodledoo, maybe something will actually leash them for once, _ Clint thought as he backed out of the kitchen, just as Pepper’s silken voice began laying out a series of threats to parts of their anatomy that they held close and dear.

He’d get back to Darce, and check on her.

And then maybe text Nat to get her to check on Steve and Bucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments kept me going for the past few months while i moved houses (ours is getting demolished) and dealt with the fact my dad started his new cancer treatment and it is going. badly. so um. please comment? it's the currency of our little arrangement. i write the good stuff, you comment. i blearily stare at my screen, thinking oh god oh god oh god this is awful and you go hey not bad here's a kudos and i'm like that's great thanks so much buddy ol' pal
> 
> ..... i werded. pls werd back at me.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, tis an update.
> 
> Beta'd by Nix. Thank you Nix!

Darcy slept on and off for the next day, Clint ready and willing to ply her with chocolate, water, and his dick as necessary to keep her comfortable. The morning after, she blinked, bleary and exhausted, feeling like a shower was the top order of the day. Had that been a heat? Her first heat? She huffed as she rolled out of Clint’s bed onto her hands and knees, and crawled to the bathroom. Everything was sore and hurt.

“Nnngh,” the sound she made perfectly encapsulated her feelings. “FRIDAY, gimme something warmish, but not scalding, m’kay?” She asked, and the shower turned on, spraying her naked, bruised body. She sighed immediately, the perfect heat soaking into her muscles. A good scrub that avoided her curling locks (seriously, Clint needed some more hair products than shampoo. No wonder his hair was always sticking up in every direction, he never used conditioner!), she felt like a brand new omega. Her cheeks flushed. She was a  _ real _ omega. That sense of newness settled over her as she toweled off and stole an oversized shirt from Clint’s closet, praying it was clean all the while.

His apartment was quiet when she poked her head out, the subtle scent of firewood lingering in the air. A single candle was burning on the end of the kitchen counter, the source of the smoky-wood smell. Next to it a propped up note sat there, folded like a card.

 

_ Darce, _

_ You were done in and I got a call to Disassemble (hahaha). Just me and Nat. Lucky’s with Pepper, and you’re welcome to hang in my place as long as you like, but I figure you should be coming down by about now. _

_ Be good. _

_ Ps - the alphaholes have been schooled by Pep so don’t worry, okay? _

_ -C _

 

He’d briefed her on his run-in with Steve and Bucky, but at the time she’d been a little preoccupied with desiring every inch of him. Pepper needed a thank you at some point. Darcy re-read the letter and rolled her eyes. Who puts a PS before signing off? She smiled and shook her head.

She needed to get back to her apartment. She also needed to get all the things she’d holed up in that nest outside of the super soldiers’ apartment. She winced at the thought of running into Bucky and Steve again. God. She knew what they smelt like when they were in rut. That thought was embarrassing. It was one thing to share a heat with Clint, he was an omega and he understood. He got it. He was a bro. But having scented Bucky and Steve like that? Why hadn’t she just barreled into their apartment and smushed her face into their junk?

She needed clothes. She needed clothes, food, and to talk to Jane. Where the hell was her phone?

A knock sounded at the door and she froze, before scurrying to the peep-hole.

“Darcy?” Thor’s voice boomed even when muffled by solid-core metal doors. Relief melted in her belly and she opened the door. Her friend, the imposing alpha, stood there dressed down in mortal-human clothes, looking casual in a short-sleeve t-shirt, dark shorts, and a pair of black Birkenstocks. He held a paper bag in one hand by the handles.

He took her in with one long look an a smile broke out on his face.

“It is good to see you so well and truly taken cared of,” he rumbled, and wrapped her up in his arms. She squeaked when her face met the valley of his pectorals. The paper bag crinkled as he let her go. “Might I enter? I come bearing gifts. I trust your heat was well spent with Clinton?”

“You know he hates it when you call him that,” Darcy said, stepping to the side so he could walk into Clint’s bachelor pad. She closed the door and followed him into the living room. “What’s up?”

“You are newly come into yourself as an omega, and I do not wish you to go without.” Thor sat down on one old, beat-up couch. Darcy sank into the cushion beside him as he settled the bag between them. She fidgeted. Thor-gifts were always like, the best. Except the one time he’d put a cactus in a bag like that without warning her. Her hand had smarted for a week. “Go on,” he said, an indulgent smile on his face. She pulled the bag into her lap and rooted through the soft, whisper-thin white tissue. A pair of velvety, silver-lilac pyjama pants were right on the top, and a matching top in some sort of bamboo-cotton blend followed. HIs cheeks were pink. “I had rather thought you might not have had appropriate apparel here at Clint’s.”

“My apartment is downstairs,” she protested, but greedily ran her fingers over the buttery-soft fabric. “I could’ve-”

“It is my pleasure, to outfit an omega when she has no alpha of her own to see to her needs,” Thor’s voice was barely a soft rumble in the back of his throat, and he had such a pleased, soppy smile on his face, that any more protests died in her mouth.

“They’re lovely,” she said instead, which wasn’t a lie. Her skin ached to wriggle in the soft fabric. She continued digging through the tissue, and pulled out a slender, white long jewelry box. She raised an eyebrow at him.

Thor drummed his fingers on his legs, almost impatiently. In a smaller man, his movements would have said to be somewhat like  _ bouncing. _ Instead he just loomed over her, grinning from ear to ear.

“You bought me sparklies,” she accused gently, a weird flutter in her belly. She opened up the box with careful fingers. The light hit delicate curves of silvery metal, which she suspected was  _ not _ silver, but probably white-gold or something. It was a filigree scroll bracelet, with a lobster claw clasp.

“Might I?” Thor asked, holding his hand out. She passed him the box. Carefully, he removed the bracelet. She lifted her wrist and he clasped the jewelry around it. “A small token of my affection for you, and also, a question.”

His formality would have been unnerving, but Thor had that tendency to go from relaxed, beer-drinking buddy to prince-of-all-realms in a heartbeat.

“It’s pretty,” she said, fingering the bracelet. It felt heavy on her skin.

“Iridium,” he explained, and she blinked.

“Iridium?”

He shook his head.

“It is of the matter that you do not have an alpha to quell your heats,” he said with such gentleness that his words almost didn’t cause her cheeks to burst into flame. Almost.

“Uh- that’s kinda sorta not something I really want to talk about, also plus plus, hey, this was my first um, heat, and I doubt I’ll have another any time soon. I mean, it took me a quarter of a century to have  _ one _ -”

Thor cleared his throat, his blue eyes clear and perfect as the calm sea.

“You have awoken, and are new-come into your own self, Darcy. This will not be the last heat you experience in so many weeks, I can assure you.” He leaned in close, and she could feel her pulse, beating hard just under the skin. Her face was getting hotter by the second.

“I like the bracelet, seriously, it’s super pretty, but can we not… have this creepy-weird intense discussion-”

“I would offer myself as your alpha, for now, until a candidate of suitable standing made herself or himself known to you,” Thor’s voice dropped a step, the heat curling audibly in his words. 

_ Fuck. _ Her brain scrambled like a cat on an oily tiled floor for a moment.

“Um, does that mean what I think it means? But you have  _ Jane _ ,” her protest squeaked out of her. Thor chuckled and wrapped his large hands around her small ones.

“She was the one who suggested it. We are not so close-minded on Asgard as to think that an unclaimed omega might not take comfort and security from an alpha who is already bonded and will not, in the heat of things, claim that omega for his own.” His thumbs stroked along the inside of her wrists. She swallowed.

“I’ll think about it,” she whispered, trying not to be embarrassed at how throaty she sounded. “It’s… like, Clint’s one thing, and I’ll totally accept a snuggle from you anytime, big guy, but-”

Thor surveyed her for a moment, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. He leaned in and kissed her cheek, softly, reverently.

“You would not be one of the greatest companions of my heart and mind if you did not think it over. It is no small thing, to take up with an alpha, even if for a short time.” He let her go and stood. The bracelet on her wrist felt snug, and she traced it with the fingers of her other hand. Was she being rude? He’d just given her things, and here she was, stalling-

“Darcy, do not let your mind turn upon you,” he said, kindness on his eyes that made her settle. He always did seem to know what she was thinking.

“I just don’t want to be dragged around by my hormones. I’ve been doing just fine without them all this time,” she admitted. She got to her feet and saw him to the door, where he embraced her, and sighed into the top of her head.

“I sometimes wondered if I could be like the kings of old, and have myself more than one omega to assist in slaking my desires,” he murmured. She blinked up at him.

He hitched one shoulder and grinned.

“But I think you would tire me out, were I to claim you,” he teased, “Clint looked completely wrung out.”

She swatted him with one hand, and he laughed, ducking through the open door, leaving her to get dressed and play with the bracelet on her wrist.

 

Her apartment felt simultaneously too big and too small. She padded around it, dressed in the new clothes from Thor because  _ ermagerd bambooooo _ , and tried to find a comfortable occupation for her time. Watching Netflix seemed too stationary. She didn’t want to exercise (post-heat that was a bad idea due to the high level of exertion and loss of fluids from her heat). Jane had banned her from working, saying that she should take some  _ girl-time _ . Thor was giving her space. Clint was still on his Disassemble.

So she paced, back and forth, the urge to nest right on the edge of her awareness. The closet, upstairs, was calling to her, begging her to return, her instincts hoping for another heat and an increased chance at a baby sired by any passing, suitable alpha.

_ No fucking way. _ She set down her water bottle on the kitchen counter, dismissing the idea of getting knocked up immediately, and sighed with restlessness.

A knock sounded at the door, and she started before going to answer it.

Darcy blinked. No she was not seeing things. Standing there in the hallway, wincing, was Bucky Barnes, and a panicked looking Steve Rogers. Clinging to the side of Bucky’s face, it’s fat little wedge of a tail puffed up along with the rest of its fur, was an orange ball of kitten fluff. It’s claws were tangled in Bucky’s hair, and another paw had sunk into his cheek, teensy white claws indenting his skin.

The kitten had a purple ribbon around its neck, tied to a collar, and Steve was trying to either grab the kitten by its scruff, or straighten the ribbon, she wasn’t sure.

“Um-”

“We got- ow,  _ fuck _ , m’sorry, m’sorry,” Bucky mumbled.

“We got you a cat!” Steve half-shouted, looking equally awkward, his voice booming and cracking.

Darcy had two seconds to either get mad at them or melt.

The kitten chose that moment to mew frantically. She reached up and untangled the tiny animal from Bucky’s face and hair. It went from fluffy to purring in an instant, curling up in her hands and snuggling into her.

Bucky breathed a sigh of relief, although Steve was still staring at her with wide eyes.

“You should know better than to carry around a kitten like that,” she scolded them, keeping her voice gentle. Kittens, and other small animals, tended not to like to be around unbonded alphas all that much. Studies had shown it was a biological thing, since tiny baby creatures were often the victims of competing grown adults looking to have only  _ their _ offspring survive.

Tiny beads of blood rose to the surface of Bucky’s cheek where the kitten had clawed him. She continued to pet the small creature, and it blinked up at her.

“You guys are going to make it up to Clint, right? Like, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.” She made a point of meeting each of their gazes with her own, intense look. Bucky swiped at his face, wiping the blood away and Steve sighed, settling his shoulders.

“We just didn’t like the thought of you getting taken advantage of,” Steve said.

“Trust me, I was taking advantage of him, if anything.” She didn’t miss how Steve’s eyes narrowed or Bucky bit into his lower lip. “But thank you for the… kitten.” She looked down at the tiny thing, a pang in her heart. It was so small. It looked up at her and then closed its eyes, relaxing against her chest, getting lost in the depths of her breasts and soft cotton as she snuggled it. “Although you should know better-”

“Pepper told us you’d been looking at adopting,” Bucky interrupted. “Or we wouldn’t have… she said you were gonna fill out applications down at the shelter…”

“He’s had shots, and there’s a litter box coming today, and some food, and all the rest of that sort of thing,” Steve’s words were rushed and cramped together, like he was trying to talk and hold his breath at the same time.

“He’s so soft,” she murmured, rubbing her fingers into the kitten’s fur. “I used to volunteer at the shelter. They like omegas more.”

“It’s cause omegas aren’t hulking jackasses,” Bucky said, voice wry. “We really do need to apologize… for everything. For… for us, and how we acted, and pushing you into a h-”

She snapped her eyes up to meet his and he went quiet.

“Let’s just agree not to talk about that,” she said, her face starting to turn pink. Bucky’s eyes were molten-hot with something, some emotion she really really did not want to unpack right just then, and he glanced away.

“What we’re saying, Miss Lewis, is we’re sorry for any discomfort we caused you,” Steve said, nudging Bucky with his shoulder. She didn’t miss the move, or the way Bucky’s jaw went tense.

“Thank you for the kitten, and apology accepted.” The kitten was purring, and the sound and vibrations were definitely calming. She needed that calm, what with Bucky shifting his weight and looking heart-breakingly delicious and conflicted.

“Well,” Steve cleared his throat, “Let’s uh… we’ll, we’ll see you, I guess. C’mon, Buck.” He nudged Bucky again, who grunted, and followed him down the hall and around the corner. She heard the ping of the elevator and then sighed in relief.

“What am I gonna do with you?”

The kitten didn’t have an answer for her. She turned away from where she’d watched the two men go, and shrieked when Bucky appeared behind her.

The kitten hissed in surprise, and crawled up her shoulder, hiding in the nest of hair at the back of her neck. Bucky’s eyes were burning as he looked down at her. Her mouth went dry.

“There’s one thing I’m not gonna be sorry about, not ever,” Bucky said, lifting his fingers to trace along the line of her jaw, “and that’s smelling how worked up you got in your nest.” His eyes flashed and she should have pulled away. She absolutely should have. Should’ve given him a few words about preying on hormonal omegas, and crossing a million boundaries, and also for scaring the crap out of her kitten.

Instead her lips parted and she moaned, softly. Bucky leaned in, crowding into her space, his fingers trailing down the side of her neck.

“ _ OW! _ ” he hissed and snatched back his hand when her kitten sunk its claws into his skin, shredding him.

Darcy took a step away, into her open doorway, trying to catch her breath. She could hear the low rumble of the kitten, growling in the back of his throat. Her resolve came roaring back, and she ignored the tumbling, restless coil of emotions in her belly. He’d had no right to touch her. No right to say things like that to her.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing, Barnes?” she asked, then stormed into her apartment and slammed the door hard. The lock clicked into place behind her and she breathed hard, reaching up to pull the trembling, shivery kitten from her neck before he got bright ideas and scratched her too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been awhile. I had to move in with my dad to take care of him, and now he's gone to hospice for end of life care. We did our best, but the time of treating his cancer through active treatment is over.
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter. Bucky, Bucky, Bucky... you just want the girl so bad! <3
> 
> please let me know what you think :) your comments on the last chapter made my life.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna take this moment to pimp out my friend, Chrissi's, fic about Darcy set in the 40's. Go read Doll and comment! Let her know what you think! She is my main conspirator and is basically the reason Basic Instincts keeps getting updated... so, shoo, go, read! It's awesome!!! [right heeeeeere](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12385494/chapters/28178028)  
>  
> 
> **things that get more writing from me: comments that suggest shit. like, that suggest things you wanna see happen. i've got some pretty hinky rsi right now and i'm a f/t writer so i need to save my arm for what pays the bills BUT.... I am working on a second part to this, but would love to hear from you what you wanna see happen/scenarios you'd love me to write**


End file.
